The mechanisms described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Online documents often include text that requires further explanation, for example further definition or information outside of the current context area. In general, online documents written in online formats, for example, the hypertext markup language (HTML), use reference links, for example, hypertext reference links (HREFs) to bring the reader to another section of the document that contains definitions or further information outside of the current context.
Under Federal Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1998(29 USC '794d), Federal Agencies' electronic and information technology is required to be accessible to people with disabilities. Section 508 establishes requirements for any electronic and information technology developed, maintained, procured, or used by the Federal government. Therefore, any entity that sells or develops electronic and information technology for United States Government agencies must adhere to Federal Section 508 guidelines.
Accessibility utilities are applications that can interact with assistive technologies, such as screen readers, speech recognition systems, and refreshable braille displays. An example of an accessibility utility is a product offered by Henter-Joyce called JAWS® (Job Access With Speech). JAWS®, uses an integrated voice synthesizer and a computer's sound card to produce an audio output of the content of a computer screen. JAWS® also outputs to refreshable Braille displays. JAWS® is an example of accessibility utility technology which provides access to a wide variety of information, education, and job related applications for non-sighted or visually impaired users.
However, the limitations of conventional techniques for accessing online document definition links and their corresponding definitions present non-sighted or visually impaired users with several problems. For example, traditional, accessibility utilities such as JAWS®, read documents from top to bottom. When an accessibility utility, such as a screen reader is employed in order to read an online document, an non-sighted or visually impaired user must eventually recognize that the desired definition has finished, and the user must proactively stop the screen reader from reading further. For example, consider footnote definition links and corresponding footnote definitions in online documents. When a screen reader reads a document from top to bottom, a drawback to traditional online definition links is that when read from top to bottom, definition links and their corresponding definition areas have little meaning. The reason for this is that as these links and definition areas are out of context with each other and the associated text. For example, when a user employs a screen reader to read an online document with footnotes, once the user selects the footnote link, the user is typically navigated to the end of the page where the footnote definition resides. The user must then recognize when a definition has finished and proactively stop the screen reader from reading further. Particularly in the case where there are multiple footnotes and therefore multiple corresponding footnote definitions in an online document, once the screen reader has completed reading a footnote definition, the screen reader typically will continue on in the document reading the next, unrelated footnote definition. Thus, in conventional systems the user is required to recognize that the screen reader has finished reading the document and unrelated information, and must proactively stop the screen reader from reading further. This limitation presents an inconvenient reading experience for those in the non-sighted or visually impaired community who employ screen readers to read online documents.
Additionally, after reading information in the definition area, in order to return to the original position within the online document, conventional methods require the visually impaired user to utilize a technique, such as selecting the browser's BACK button, to bring the user back to the general area of the document. For example, when a user employs a screen reader such as JAWS® to read an online document, the user is required to stop the reader and to use the browser's BACK button to return to the main text after the definition has been read.
A drawback to this type of manual navigation back to the original area in the document is that it is a cumbersome process for the visually impaired user who employs a screen reader for reading online documents. Once the user has employed a technique such as the browser's BACK button, the non-sighted or visually impaired user is presented with only a general area of the document and must thus manually navigate the original area of the document. Typically, employing a navigation method such as selection of the browser's BACK button will bring the user to the general area of the online document, up to a full page previous to the desired area. For example, when a non-sighted or visually impaired user selects a footnote hypertext link, the user is typically navigated to the end of the page where the footnote definition area resides. Conventionally, when a user employs a screen reader to read an online document, the user must recognize when the desired footnote has finished, and stop the screen reader from reading the next unrelated footnote. Additionally, once the user has stopped the screen reader the user must then navigate back to continue reading from the original location in the document.
Another techniques for accessing online definition links require the user to place a mouse over the corresponding definition link in order to view the definition area. For example, in certain systems, placing a MouseOver a footnote definition link, a corresponding footnote definition area is displayed to the user in response to a MouseOver. However, a drawback to this technique is that utilizing a mouse is not compatible with accessibility utilities such as screen readers, therefore the user who employs the screen reader is unable to access the definition area using a mouse over. This limitation presents an inconvenient reading experience for those in the visually impaired community who employ screen readers to read online documents.
Another drawback to traditional online definition links is that the definition areas typically do not have the capability of supporting text emphasis and navigation to additional reference links within an associated definition area. Typically, when accessing conventional online definition links, the user is navigated to a separate definition area, which may contain text emphasis, and additional reference information that may be accessed through an additional reference link. For example, if a user employs a screen reader to access a footnote definition link; the associated definition area may contain text emphasis and reference to additional reference information.
Yet another drawback to traditional online definition links is that current commercially available HTML generation tools used for online documentation footnote definition links typically place an HTML NAME tag at the beginning of footnote text, rather than before the footnote number. Typically, screen readers read the corresponding footnote text without having prefaced it with the footnote number, and then read the number for the next footnote. This presents another problem for users who employ screen readers in that this limitation results in confusion for the user.
The limitations of conventional online definition links make reading online documents with definition links and corresponding definition areas problematic for users. Based upon the foregoing, it is desirable to provide a mechanism that overcomes the limitations of traditional access to online documentation definition links and their corresponding definition areas when employing an assistive technology, such as screen readers.